It’s simple, really—once you respect the rights of others, how do you stop respecting them?
Just like almost everyone else, my potential for compassion was hobbled at a young age. I grew up on a mountain, around hunting, and went to school with farm kids. I saw the victims on farms, in herds and flocks, their individuality ignored. I even personally murdered some animals. I have a lot to feel guilty about.
It was not until I met my husband, Shelby, that I started to understand compassion for those who are not human. Shelby’s experience with other-than-human persons growing up was more compassionate than mine, and his knowledge of them through reading was extensive. Listening to him I learned so much about the sentience and majesty of other animals, and I grew to respect them a little. It took a bumper sticker to jolt us: “If you love animals, why do you eat them?” It took us three months to stop eating their flesh and wearing their skins. Over the next three years, I learned a lot of details of all forms of animal exploitation and other avoidable harms. I became an activist, unlearned speciesism, and I finally became vegan. I did it so gradually, thinking the entire time that I could not do it, that I don’t even know for sure when I was vegan, but I have decided it was the fall of 2004.
Unlearning speciesism is the foundation of veganism, connecting one with the world in an amazing and complex way. I now know that everyone has an equal right to live free from exploitation and other avoidable harms, including a right to their share of a healthy planet. How could I ever feel differently?
